U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, JULY 18, 1994

" In World War II,

fascist Croatia had a simple policy

and exterminate one third."

"CONVERT" MEANT CONVERT [OR DIE]

TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

[1991, OK for RC Croats to "break away" from Serbia, but wicked

of Serbs to "break away" from angelic, peace-loving Croats. jp]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, JULY 18, 1994

BALKAN PARANOIA

In World War II, fascist Croatia had a simple policy for dealing with its "Serbian question"--convert one third, deport one third and exterminate one third.

When war erupted in 1991 between Croatia (emboldened by independence) and its Serb minority (empowered by guns), the Serbs carved out their own ``Republic of Serbian Krajina,'' an ethnically cleansed breakaway state encompassing one third of Croatian territory.

Croatia's current Serbian question is not how to eradicate Serbs but rather how to coax them back under government control.

Rebel Serbs have not even spoken with Croatian officials since March, when the United States, Russia and the United Nations brokered a cease-fire. And with the spotlight on the tragic Bosnian conflict next door, the situation has quietly reached the critical stage. Devoted to the notion of ``Greater Serbia'' and obsessed by history, Serbs in Krajina refuse to rejoin Croatia, which they claim slaughtered 750,000 in the monstrous Jasenovac concentration camp. Historians dismiss that exaggerated figure, but perceptions are far more important than facts in today's Balkans. Croatia is now fueling Serb paranoia by resurrecting World War II's ``kuna'' currency.

With the Serbs not budging, Croatia's 250,000 displaced people have begun blocking the movement of the United Nations Protection Force, demanding that the peacekeepers either recover the occupied territories or ``go home.'' If the Croatian Parliament votes this week to terminate the U.N. mandate, another war may soon follow. ``Our crisis has ripened,'' said Mario Nobilo, Croatia's ambassador to the U.N. ``Croatia cannot be patient forever and put up with its own Cyprusization.''

BY SAMANTHA POWER IN JASENOVAC